Okay listen, if I was an impressionable young man living during the Great Depression with nothing to lose, you can bet your ass I would go anywhere with Margot Robbie regardless of what she might have done. Miles Joris-Peyrafitte's Dreamland is a surprisingly solid, little drama and one that continued to entertain me despite its obvious downfalls. This movie takes every turn one could expect it to take and never really tries to stray from its own, beaten path. However, for a film that almost solely focuses on a Dust Bowl romance and has every right to be grimy and boring, this movie is genuinely filled to the brim with awesome stylistic choices. So much of the direction, editing, and cinematography were just phenomenal and while I could definitely tell these crew members were not working together very well, it almost becomes a sort of beautiful mishmash. This film has every right to be bad and to many, it will be, but this movie had just the right amount of creative complacency for me to enjoy.
Eugene Evans (Finn Cole) lives with his family on a small homestead during the Great Depression. When their community finds out that wanted criminal and bank robber Allison Wells (Margot Robbie) is passing through town, the manhunt for her begins but not before Eugene has a firsthand encounter. He ends up sheltering her from the police and while the two of them grow closer and closer, Eugene winds up falling more into her lifestyle than he could have ever bargained for. This script, written by Nicolaas Zwart, contains so many great parts but also fails to really deliver on anything incredibly original. Dreamland goes about its story in the most expected and safe ways possible and while going into this film, that is kind of exactly what I had anticipated. Every plot point was predictable, the pacing of when the biggest, dramatic events would occur was easy to tell, and each and every character went about the plot in such a way that it felt like someone fresh out of screenwriting school could have cooked up. This is so painfully true to the point that a lot of the dialogue even felt ingenuine. Of course, this film is set during the Great Depression era and Western folk speak much differently than we do now but a lot of the terms and phrases that these characters used felt very forced, like something out of an old-timey, political cartoon. Thankfully, this never really detracted from my enjoyment of the film and quite honestly, it added a level of goofiness that worked really well. This movie also never really takes itself too seriously and that can be seen in so many choices with the humor, coming-of-age tone, and lightheartedness that was paired with a lot of the action. Yes, many can rightfully compare this film to the classic Bonnie and Clyde but why would anyone want to when the only trait they share is that they revolve around bank robbers? Dreamland takes what made that classic movie so popular and riffs on the genre with its own, lighter set of feet. Another part of the writing that I really appreciated was the way that Zwart flips the gender tropes of this genre and places the character of Eugene into a much more sensitive, inexperienced, and immature role. Seeing Robbie's character Allison become a lover and also a sort of mentor to him in the ways of being a criminal was fascinating to see and I loved this writer's mild, progressive choices.
Within the first few minutes of this movie, Joris-Peyrafitte makes it quite obvious how many different, creative fountains he sipped from before helming this story. This movie's visual style is such an interesting one to explore because there never seems to be one distinct inspiration or style that Joris-Peyrafitte is trying to emulate. The cinematography from Lyle Vincent was gorgeous and along with many establishing shots, his quicker-than-life movement of the camera was incredibly exciting. There were a lot of camera moves he opted to do that would feel very cheesy or amateurish in any kind of movie, but Dreamland carries that strange quality that always made the camera work. The editing from Abbi Jutkowitz and Brett M. Reed was just as weirdly cooperative as the camera was and so many of the flashback sequences and rapid-fire cuts would stand out in your normal drama fare but worked so well for the blithe tone of this film. While all of these pieces put together might be a bit frantic to follow, I still think it worked for the outlandish story and the chaos that ensued from them working together on-screen could very well be the visual style that Joris-Peyrafitte was going for all along. Accompanying the incredibly unique forms of storytelling were the performances from Cole and Robbie. I have known about Finn Cole as an actor since he has been leading one of my favorite television dramas Animal Kingdom and seeing him in something wildly different was such a nice change of pace. He is one of the most unknown and underrated actors that I have seen working today and I really think he deserves a bigger role to push him into the spotlight. Then again, I think he would also dominate really well in a smaller-budget environment, and that way I could continue to enjoy the work he does without fear of him becoming overexposed. And just like practically all of the films that she does, Margot Robbie disappears into this role and really makes the best of her character. Allison Wells might not be the most compelling case study for a character ever written but Robbie is able to hold her own incredibly well. Like I said before, this film is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but for me, every element worked together to make it a decently fun waste of just more than 90 minutes.
Miles Joris-Peyrafitte's Dreamland is that rare film I feel like no one else has any strong opinions on but one that I am not at all disappointed I paid a bit of money to rent. Cole and Robbie are just fantastic together and along with the wonderful cinematography, editing, and production design, this film ended up being much better than I actually expected. While there are and always will be more unique and more original takes on this kind of outlaw story, I am pleasantly satisfied with what I got in this film and would strongly recommend it to any other fans of the genre.
My Rating: ★★★½
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